r/PCB

It finally arrived.
Power strips with built-in decoupling capacitors.
(Did not solder the optional electrolyte capacitors yet)
Finally, less wire-cutting for the power rails.

Soldering them actually is quite efficient. Just put the pins in the power rails first, then put the PCBs on top, then solder twenty at a time.
Only issue: my capacitors are wider than the holes.

By the way, shall I make a product out of these? I can change all components to surface mount, and I can image the result would be pretty cheap.

finally completed my first custom Pcb 😌😌

I appreciate any feedback on my first go at designing and routing a PCB, still new to electronics so if I've missed anything obvious then please let me know. I was inspired to make this after seeing a few videos of people on youtube. The idea is to have this as a little desk macropad plugged into my PC for shortcuts etc.

The Microcontroller is a SEEED studio XIAO ESP-S3. I should add a cut out to the PCB to access the back pads, might try that next time. I didn't add any battery options as the neopixel needs the 5V from VBUS, should I add a fuse to this line?

AI was limited to helping me find certain components and where to buy them, generating a footprint/3D image for the fader as it was an AliExpress component I had laying around. I also used it to help when I had issues with KiCad, nothing design related just new to the software.

Don't blame AI for any bad routing or for the weird I^(2)C expansion section, that useless section was my design. I wanted the ability to add additional I^(2)C and should of just stuck to having the STEMMA QT connector and called it a day.

I'm fairly sure I've made a total mess of the routing, but the whole project was just a learning exercise. I've seen somewhere that global labels are not the play, but I learnt most of how to make a schematic from the Joe Scotto video I watched on the keypad matrix.

Fader and Rotary encoder are for control, keypad will be for macros. Neopixel added just to have a play around with having two different voltages on the board and possible future notifications. I placed some test points for the fader as I'd had some weird behaviour on the breadboard prototype for this component and also they look cool.

The OLED header is for a I^(2)C 0.92" OLED screen, a 128x64.

Would greatly appreciate some help reviewing the schematic I'm designing for a custom camera flash. This is my first time doing anything like this so I was hoping to get some feedback before moving on to the layout stage. Some more details not contained in the schematic:

• I'm planning on using the following parts harvested from a Godox flash:
  • 900mAh, 7.4V battery (has 3 wires but I don't think I need the third which is why that pin is crossed out in the schematic)
  • 330V 370uF photoflash capacitor
  • Xenon tube
• For charging I'm planning on using something like this to step the USB-C's 5V up to the 8.4V required for charging the battery. I'm also planning on tapping the raw 5V current and reading this from my STM32 (through the voltage divider) so that I can implement some logic to set the LED to a certain color to indicate that it's charging. There's also no real power switch in this schematic because I'm planning on implementing a "soft sleep" mode by powering down the STM32, 12V step up converter, and the 370uF capacitor charging circuit.
• For the 12V to 330V step up circuit I'm planning on using a daughter board, something like this
• Xenon tubes require a momentary high voltage spark (around 4kV) to ionize the gas which then allows the actual flash current to flow through and produce the light. For this I'm planning on using this trigger coil

I would really appreciate any feedback on the overall schematic as well as the plan in general. Especially since this deals with some high voltage current I'd like someone with experience to take a look before I go any further.

Some of the parts I'm planning on using, like the 12V boost and USB-C charging boards, seem hard to source. I'm only able to find them on AliExpress really so if anyone has any experience with ordering parts from there please let me know if you think this is a good idea. Thanks!